A simple zone lacing trick for sport shoes

[unixronin]

I've given this idea a long enough "beta test" now that I think it's time to spread it around.

You see ... I like my shoes to give me firm ankle support, but leave my toes and forefoot room to move around and breathe.  This is surprisingly difficult to achieve with a normal lacing scheme. You can leave the forefoot area of your shoe loose and lace the top of the shoe tightly, but as you walk, slack tends to migrate up the shoe; the top gets progressively looser, while the forefoot gets progressively tighter.  After a few days to a week, you have to relace the shoe to move slack back down into the forefoot.

My first shot at a solution to this was to relace each shoe with two short laces instead of one long lace.  Suppose you''re wearing a seven-hole running shoe ... you lace the first three holes with one lace, tied loosely, and the top four with a second lace pulled as tight as you like.  But it's untidy, and you have to buy new laces.  I couldn't really call it a success.

Probably about a year ago now, I had one of those "Why didn't I think of that before?" moments, and came up with what has proven to be a much better solution that uses the original laces and still gives you dual lacing zones.  You're going to laugh at how simple this is.

It works like this.  You figure out how many lacing holes correspond to the forefoot area that you want to leave comfortably loose.  You lace up that portion of the shoe, with the existing lace you already have, loosely enough to give your forefoot the room you need.  Then you knot the laces.  A simple reef knot works perfectly, and lies flat.  Then you finish lacing up the shoe normally.  The reef knot effectively "restarts" the lacing, and won't shift because the side-to-side tension on it is balanced.  (A reef knot between two lines with tension on only one of them can collapse into a cow hitch, but that's not a problem here.)  The forefoot stays loose and comfortable.  The top of the shoe stays tight and supportive.  If you want to change the balance between the two zones — how much of the shoe is snug vs. how much is a little looser — you just unlace the top and move the knot up or down one hole.

Give it a try.  It's free.

Comments

[ithildae]

Elegant.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

yup, i've done that.

see: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/index.htm for more amusements

i have a special trick for lacing boots with lugs... when i get to the lugs, instead of bottom up, i go top down, this keep the top tighter consistently, AND keep the laces lower down the boot which is nice.

on finishing the lace, i tend to add an extra turn to the first overhand knot, and use a secure lacing... the "better bow" http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/betterbowknot.htm

this is a fun one too: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

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[laurarey.livejournal.com]

Ya know....I chuckled as I started reading this....and then went "Huh. This actually really makes sense."

Now I'm going to try it. :)

Thanks.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Will it burst your bubble if I tell you I was taught that particular trick at the roller rink in the 80s? (Edit: my mistake, I meant the 70s) In that case, I wanted it the other way around -- staying tight in the foot, looser above the ankle.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, you see, this is a different implementation! ;)

Seriously ... it seems it's something of a lost secret.

[masgramondou.livejournal.com]

These days most of my running shoes come with knobbly laces that seem to stop the original problem.

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

A fairly common approach among hikers as well. A full knot is not necessary. Crossing the laces a couple of times so they have more friction will do it, and is easier to adjust. Like this:

http://www.hitthetrail.com/boot_lacing.php

Although in your case you'd want to do that closer to the forefoot.

[lablldmsnsmerci.livejournal.com]

Yup it works - an old hiker's trick - I mean an old hiking tip:)